xoxietyblog

Jackie Danicki is a connector, a prime example of what Malcolm Gladwell described as “the kinds of people who know everyone and possess special gifts for bringing the world together.”  The party she threw last night for her client, European SEM co. Latitude, was the best kind of mixer, where there was no such thing as a usual suspect, just lots of fascinating individuals making fizzy connections.

Companies often think that an event has to have a theme to succeed–I’d say that it’s far more important to have a charming host with a knack for promising the unexpected. It hardly felt like networking at all! I don’t think Jackie has a title, but if I were to make one up, it would be Director of Synergies.

A highlight of the evening for me was listening to the CEO of a hot startup recount how he and his two partners quit their jobs–then spent three months “sitting in the garage” trying to think of something to do. It reminds me, while I’m in looking-for-work mode, that “work” is never about finding the right company, or the right job, or even the right area of endeavor, but about our eternal quest to add up to more than the sum of our parts, both individually and together.